Shared Top Border

They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

  WebTSPDT

[ Home ] [ Directors A-L ] [ Directors M-Z ] [ 1,000 Greatest Films ] [ 21st Century ] [ Film Noir ] [ Ain't Nobody's Blues ] [ Recommended Viewing ] [ About ] [ Links ]
 
         
 
Wes Anderson
Director / Screenwriter / Producer
1969 - 
Born May 1, Houston, Texas, USA
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Comedy, Comedy Drama, Coming-of-Age
Key Collaborators: Robert Yeoman (Cinematographer), Owen Wilson (Leading Character Player/Screenwriter), Bill Murray (Leading Character Player), Jason Schwartzman (Leading Player/Screenwriter), Scott Rudin (Producer), Mark Mothersbaugh (Composer), Barry Mendel (Producer), Luke Wilson (Leading Character Player), Anjelica Huston (Leading Character Player), David Moritz (Editor).

Highly Recommended: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)*^, Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)^
Recommended: Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998)*, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)^, Hotel Chevalier (2007), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
* Listed in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films section; ^ Listed in TSPDT's 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films section.

Links: [ Amazon ] [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ The Rushmore Academy: The Films of Wes Anderson ] [ Guardian Articles ] [ Film Monthly Interview ] [ National Geographic Interview (2004) ] [ Guardian Article (2005) ] [ Guardian Interview (2012) ] [ Boston Phoenix Interview (2007) ] [ Wikipedia ] [ New York Magazine Interview (2007) ] [ AV Club Interview (2007) ] [ Cinema-Scope Article (2010) ] [ Washington Post Interview (2012) ] [ Screen Machine Article (2012) ]
Books: [ Wes Anderson: Why His Movies Matter ] [ Wes Anderson: An Unauthorized Biography of the Iconic Filmmaker ] [ Film Direction, Perfected: Profile of Wes Anderson ] [ The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox: A Film by Wes Anderson Based on the Book by Roald Dahl ]
 
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)Rushmore (1998)The Darjeeling Limited (2007)Bottle Rocket (1996)
 
     
  "With a distinctive visual style that steers clear of the gross plagiarism of many post-Tarantino thirtysomething directors, Anderson sets himself apart from most of his contemporaries. His work is as refreshing and visually inspiring as any Coen brothers' film and restores faith in the idea that Hollywood can still produce an idiosyncratic black comedy once in a while." - Peter Homden (Contemporary North American Film Directors, 2002)  
     
  "Few directors' films deserve the term "character-driven" more than Anderson's. His films are also casting-, music-, mood- and even production design-driven (he works with more or less the same key production personnel every time), but whatever powers their engines, action and plot are but trace elements in the fuel." - Leslie Felperin (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)  
     
  "King of literary geek chic on the silver screen, Wes Anderson emerged from the U.S. movie underground an almost ready-made savant. Remarkably quickly, his quirky, off-kilter films neatly established Anderson almost as a genre unto himself." - Joshua Klein (501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers, 2007)  
     
  "The idea is to make this self-contained world that is the right place for the characters to live in, a place where you can accept their behaviour." - Wes Anderson  
     
 8
 

"As a visual stylist, Anderson has gotten progressively more inventive with each film, to the extent that some critics faulted The Life Aquatic for neglecting character and plot in favor of elaborately staged set pieces. Although the low budget naturalism of Bottle Rocket showed Anderson’s eye for detail and his command of deadpan long shots, the vibrant color schemes, creative editing, and jangling soundtrack of Rushmore were a surprise. The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic further developed those attributes, revealing a baroque Pop bent that is not realist, surrealist, or magic realist. If anything, it recalls the fabulism of Terry Gilliam." - Jesse Fox Mayshark, Post-Pop Cinema: The Search for Meaning in New American Film

 
 
Top 250 Directors 
21st Century Top 50 
Ranked 29th on The Guardian's 2004 List of the World's 40 Best Directors
Ranked 24th on Film Comment's list of the 25 Best Directors of the Decade (2000-2009)
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
 
See Also
Robert Altman
Paul Thomas Anderson
Hal Ashby
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Terry Gilliam
Hal Hartley
Alexander Payne
Satyajit Ray
 
Wes Anderson's Favourites
A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick, Rosemary's Baby (1968) Roman Polanski, Toni (1935) Jean Renoir, Trouble in Paradise (1932) Ernst Lubitsch, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Mike Nichols (1966). Source: Rotten Tomatoes (2012)
 
 
 
         
         

 

[ Home ] [ Directors A-L ] [ Directors M-Z ] [ 1,000 Greatest Films ] [ 21st Century ] [ Film Noir ] [ Ain't Nobody's Blues ] [ Recommended Viewing ] [ About ] [ Links ]
[ Recommended Reading Archives ] [ The Shooting Gallery ]
 
Contact Us: bill@theyshootpictures.com.
©2002-2012 They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?